30th August was our last whale watching trip from Port McNeil. It started with us seeing a humpback surrounded by Dalls Porpoise, the Humpback didn’t seem to mind having the porpoises swim with him/her and it was a lovely sight to watch two different species interact. We then were lucky to see a humpback whale and calf, who fluked together. These were Id’d as BCX1187 “Frosty” and her Calf .

We saw a further 12 humpbacks throughout the day, as we travelled through the waters..

The weather was forever changing, sunny, drizzle and a yellow haze in parts which made it seem like several seasons in one day!

Not long after seeing Frosty, we spotted a group of Orcas (Northern Resident’s) these were the A23’s and A25’s. They were very active each side of the boat, fishing and playing. As the rain started, a few people took cover inside. We continued to stay outside and I watched from one side of the boat and Craig the other, for me I choose the best side as an Orca jumped fully out of the air! We saw several tail slaps and half breaches, the Orcas were enjoying themselves.

As quick as the rain started the sun came for lunch , so we found a spot to watch the Orcas fish close by and eat our soup. No one told the Orcas about the 200m distance as they decided to take a closer look at us, a few of them swam up to the boat and under it. One Orca decided to spyhop which got a big reaction from everyone.

It was amazing to see and memories we will cherish forever.

After lunch we were all on a high and thought that was it for the day, little were we to know that we were to see another group of Orcas, made up of the A30’s and I15’s.

They too were fishing and as the engines were slowed and set to ticking over we watched as this group swam around us, again they seemed as curious about us as were of them.

Time seems to come to a standstill when you are watching these graceful Orcas fish and enjoy socializing together. As time ticked on, we started to head back. The whole boat buzzing! As I stood at the back of the boat still videoing the Orcas seemed to be following us, this time with Pacific White-sided Dolphin. Willing them to follow, I couldn’t believe it when an Orca surfaced in the wake of the boat and then a few more surfaced to the side of us. We travelled slowly with them, until they decided to stop to fish and left us to continue without them. An amazing day, memories will stay with us forever.

We are lucky to have our video and photos to relive the memories whenever we want too and also share with others on our dedicated Facebook page

-Nicole